The assault seems relentless - we reviewed over 70 new membership sign-ups yesterday and I think 3 looked legit - one has posted an intro.

I've just reviewed another 120 that have come through in the last 16 hours.

We have the 'blurry figures' image set on "High" and have just changed the 'question' from simple maths to a warhammer related one.Need to see if that helps - we are being besieged.

:engel:

In the dim dark depths of recession 2012 there is only war - Midaski against the spambots.

Delthos:
While I like the change to the question that should keep a lot of bots out, I think it may keep out some potential real members. As odd as it seems, I bet there are a lot of players that don't know the answer! It may be better to ask "Who is the current Emporer of the Empire?" Even newbie Empire players will know that, where as a whole lot of them won't know where the GW HQ is.

Finlay:
The porn in the EF was particularly troubling.

Thanks guys!

Darknight:
Might a workable solution be to disallow posting privs to ALL boards on the site until the member has been approved by a Mod, with the exception of a board specifically set up for intro posts?

Then, tell new users (after that have run the gauntlet of Midaski's verification) they must post a post in that forum and THEN they get approved.

If the post is a picture of a real-life Klockenbooty model doing unmentionable things to a man with an Ogre mustache, then we know they are not a real person. If the post is "Hello, I like the Empire and I want to paint models" we know they are a real person.

Or a particular type of fetish-porn-spam-bot, take your pick.

This would concentrate the spam into a single board which people could ignore at their pleasure.

Just a suggestion for "the next stage" in the arms race. You have my sympathy, guys - thank you for your service.

Delthos:
The problem with that approach is that were are supposed to be a family freindly board. Isolating it to just one board, still makes it viewable. I think the goal is to elliminate it, so everyone coming here doesn't have to see it, including the young 'uns.